Even reading about the death of Kirsty MacColl still saddens me, nearly fourteen years later. It must be fairly bittersweet for her two sons, Jamie and Louis, every Christmas, when the anniversary of their mother’s death – through no fault of her own – happened right in front of them. Her most famous part – that of the female protagonist on The Pogues’ ‘Fairytale Of New York’ became a million-seller and is rightly regarded as the nation’s favourite Christmas song. Of course, there’s far more to Ms. MacColl than her death and ‘Fairytale.’ It appears here, of course, but it’s telling that it appears halfway through the second disc of this compilation. Not because I think it needed to buried (hell, I’m still not sick of 26 years later), but because as the other 42 tracks reveal, there was so much more to her than that song.
So we have a number of her singles from over the years, songs that were deservedly hits –’Walking Down Madison,’ her covers of The Kinks’ ‘Days’ and a radio session version of ‘A New England’ recorded with Billy Bragg; singles that weren’t hits –’They Don’t Know,’ ‘Terry’ and ‘In These Shoes?’ as well as album tracks that showed just how awesome she was on that format, too – ‘England 2 Columbia 0′ and ‘Us Amazonians.’
It’s a genuinely comprehensive overview of her career as you’d expect, and hope, and one I feel does her twenty-year career justice. It’s also got decent sleevenotes (so nice when us reviewers are sent these rather than just streams or downloads!); and is both a great introduction and fantastic round-up. [Rating:4.5]
All I Ever Wanted – The Anthology is out on Edsel on April 7.
